Plymouth 1946-1959: Plymouth Turbine Cars Plymouth Turbine Cars by Jim Benjaminson . Copyrighted by Jim Benjaminson. Reprinted by permission. Originally printed by Motorbooks International. “The car was moving under its own power. I was driving it and Sam Williams was sitting next to me. Dave Borden was in the back seat. “Word had gotten out that we were going to try a turbine car for the first time. We started it and started to move out and the crowd cheered. It was quite an exciting event. There must have been 300 people hanging out of windows and leaning over the roof. With the cheers and the applause I suppose the rest of the place must have wondered what in the hell was going on over there. Word got around pretty fast. That was the fall of 1953.” With those words, George Huebner Jr. recalled the first impromptu public showing of Chrysler Corporation's first gas turbine-powered automobile as it was driven around Chrysler's Highland Park complex.

The car, a white-over-beige 1954 Plymouth Belvedere two-door hardtop, was not the first turbine-powered automobile in the world (Rover's Jet 1 held that distinction), but it did carry a distinction no car had to that time—it was the first production automobile in the world to be powered by a gas turbine. Chrysler's turbine program dated back to World War II. In 1945, Chrysler had been issued a contract by the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics to develop a turboprop engine. Work on an automotive version of the engine didn't begin in earnest until 1949 when the Navy contract ran out. Development work consisted of improvements to the compressor, regenerator, burner controls, and other necessary gearing and controls needed to adopt a gas turbine to automotive use. Key obstacles were cost and materials availability; completely new tooling and manufacturing methods would have to be developed if a turbine engine was to be mass produced. Turbine engines, by their very nature, required special metal alloy and ceramic parts to withstand the extreme temperatures generated.

Chrysler engineers were faced with two engine designs to choose from, either single- or two-shaft, and chose to develop the two-stage turbine (a gas generator stage and a power turbine stage). In its simplest form, a turbine draws in air which is then compressed (and heated) before being subjected to mixing with fuel. In its first stage, the mixture is again compressed before passing on to the second or power turbine stage. Gas turbines were noted for extremely high exhaust temperatures, a problem Chrysler engineers solved by rerouting the exhaust gasses through rotating heat exchangers or regenerators. At the power turbine stage turbine blades could be operating at over 70,000rpm, a speed that had to be reduced through a series of reduction gears before power could be directed to a car's transmission. News of Huebner’s October 1953 test drive of the first turbine-powered production car wasn't released to the general public until March 25, 1954. With a mid-June dedication set for Chrysler's new Chelsea, Michigan, testing facilities, it was only natural that Chrysler would want to showcase its latest engineering developments during the ceremonies.

Chrysler engineers had begun to set up a 1953 Dodge sedan as the first turbine-powered car. With the fast approaching Chelsea dedication the switch to a more sporty Plymouth body style-at a time when Plymouth sales were lagging severely-was probably more of a public relations move than an engineering decision. Plymouth needed as much favorable publicity as it could generate even though the Chrysler Corporation gas turbine was just that-a corporate turbine rather than a Plymouth turbine. The public got its first look at the Plymouth Belvedere Turbine when it was displayed at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City from April 7 to 11. The Waldorf showing was a static display; it wouldn't be until the June 16 dedication ceremonies at Chelsea that the press and public would see and hear the turbine run, and then only in a series of "drive-bys" past the visitors' grandstands. Neither the press nor the general public would get a chance to get behind the wheel of the turbine car. Measuring 32 inches long, 33 inches wide, and 28 inches high, the turbine, rated at 100 hp, fit snugly into the Belvedere's engine compartment.

Mated to a standard Plymouth transmission with only reverse and high gears, the turbine weighed some 200 lb less than a conventional Plymouth 6-cylinder engine. Built essentially as a laboratory development tool, the first turbine, identified as the CR1, was considered by Chrysler engineers as a "milestone in automotive power engineering" because it embodied solutions to two of the major problems long associated with gas turbines: high fuel consumption and scorching exhaust gas. The key feature that contributed to removing these technical barriers was the heat exchanger or regenerator. Heat exchangers extracted heat from the hot exhaust gasses and transferred that energy back to the compressed air, thus easing the burners' job of raising gas temperature, conserving fuel, and lowering the exhaust temperature. At idle, the turbine's exhaust temperature fell to 170 degrees Fahrenheit, ranging up to 500 degrees under normal operating conditions. Unknown to nearly everyone was the existence of a second 1954 turbine-powered Belvedere sport coupe, without the heat exchanger. Plans had been made to show both cars, side by side, at the Chelsea dedication to demonstrate the difference between a turbine with heat exchanger and one without.

The second car, appropriately painted fire engine red, nearly caught fire from the turbine's intense heat during a pre-dedication test, thus canceling the comparisons. Of the two turbine cars, the white-over-beige car was the one always seen in press releases. The red car, in a photo cropped to show the turbine engine, was shown in color on the front cover of the August 1954 issue of Motor Trend (Motor Trend had published a two-page feature with the white-over-beige car in its May 1954 issue). Everyone's question was, "When can I buy one?" James Zeder, Chrysler vice-president and director of engineering, replied, “Commercial production of gas turbines for passenger cars depends on long-range solutions to many complex metallurgical and manufacturing problems. There is no telling at this time how long it will take to solve these problems.” Metals such as tungsten, cobalt, and molybdenum, necessary to the construction of a turbine, were costly and in scarce supply. “Plymouth's production line would drain the national supply in short order,” Zeder continued.

With the exception of a 12 inch oval exhaust port beneath the rear bumper, the first Plymouth turbine cars appeared completely stock. George Stecher, who worked on Chrysler's turbine program for twenty-eight years, recalled another interesting aspect of the first turbine car. “The original ’54 had no starter. We used to take an air motor—we had a T-handle bolted to the air motor, and we had a shaft that had a couple of tongues on it, and on the engine you had a shaft that had a couple of forks. And we used to sit there with it between our legs and start it that way. On shutdown, the soak-back temperatures got extremely high, so we used to have to sit there once we shut it down and continuously crank it, without feeding any fuel to it, just to cool the engine down so we didn't coke up the bearings and things of that sort. We had a lot of problems with that.” Almost a year later the same basic turbine engine was installed in a 1955 Plymouth Belvedere four-door sedan.

Painted red and white, the 1955 Turbine Special carried a unique hood ornament and medallion, special body name plates and trunk medallion in addition to having an oval exhaust port built into the center of the rear bumper. The 1955 was never shown publicly but was driven on Detroit streets. Again, according to Stecher, "Any photographs you see of the car on the streets of Detroit—well, you'd have to go back to the calendar, but it was Good Friday, when they used to close places down from twelve to three. That's when we went out with a bunch of photographers, and we went to various gas stations and things of that sort. It was done for various publicity reasons, but never shown." March 1956 saw Plymouth's third Turbine Special, an all-white Belvedere four door, take to the highway on the first cross-country test run of a turbine-powered automobile. Leaving New York City's Chrysler Building March 26, the car arrived four days and 3,020 miles later in Los Angeles, California.

Fuel economy on the trip averaged 13 mpg, using mostly unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel (the turbine would burn any combustible liquid, from expensive French perfume to rot-gut whiskey). The trip was to be driven nonstop, with various drivers taking turns at the wheel. George Stecher, who drove on the first and last legs, recalled that the trip was not without its problems. A bearing in a reduction gear failed; “due to somebody putting in a piece of copper tubing for an oil feed and it just fatigued and broke.” Later a cracked intake casting was replaced. Chrysler was prepared for any trouble en route; the entourage included not only the turbine car but three station wagons and a truck carrying fuel, spare parts, and a complete spare engine. Like the 1955 Belvedere, the cross-country car was modified only to the extent of having special hood medallions, body name plates, and a modified rear bumper with exhaust port. The cross-country Turbine still used the first generation turbine engine, which had been further refined through the addition of automatic controls for turbine temperature, idle, and top speed.

1963 Ghia turbine details (Richard Benner photos) Later in the year, a second 1956 Belvedere Turbine Special was built using a completely redesigned turbine dubbed the CR2. The CR2 was rated at 200hp, double that of the first version. This Belvedere was never publicly shown and lacked some of the distinctive features of the cross-country turbine. Both 1956 Turbine Belvederes were fitted with green interiors. Turbine development work continued, with the engine installed next into a white 1957 Plymouth sedan. This turbine, also a second generation CR2 version, was never shown publicly and was later modified to look like the 1958 series Plymouths. Why Chrysler bothered to update the looks of the car remains something of a mystery—even today Chrysler's history of the turbine project fails to even mention the 1957-58 Turbine Special! 1963 Ghia turbine details (Richard Benner photos) Following a public absence of nearly three years, Plymouth officially unveiled the CR2 turbine in a red 1959 Fury four-door hardtop.

Like the original CR2 version in the 1956 and 1957-58 cars, this turbine was rated at 200hp. This car was taken out on the highway, logging a 576 mile test run from Detroit to New York City and back in December 1958. This second generation turbine, also considered "just a laboratory tool," was improved in nearly all respects. Three major components, the compressor, regenerator, and burner, showed significant improvements in operating efficiency. At an average speed of 38 mph, the turbine logged 19 mpg on the run east; on the return trip, averaging 51 mph, mileage dropped slightly to 17 mpg. Fuel used on this trip included diesel fuel, JP4 jet fuel, and regular gasoline. By 1961, Chrysler engineers had again completely redesigned the turbine, referring to the third-generation turbine as the CR2A.

First shown to the public in February 1961, the engine was installed in three different vehicles — a wildly designed show car called the Turboflite, a silver and red 1960 Plymouth Belvedere four-door hardtop, and a 1960 Dodge truck. Why these turbines weren't used in 1961 models was never explained. Later, a third-generation turbine would be fitted into a 1962 Dodge truck. For whatever reason, Chrysler’s next turbine-powered automobiles came from Dodge — a pair of 1962 Dodge Turbo Darts. One of the Turbo Darts, a light blue two-door hardtop, was driven cross country by George Huebner, who left New York City on December 27, 1961, and arrived in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. Eventually the turbine engine found its way into a pair of 1962 Plymouth Fury hardtop coupes dubbed the Turbo Furys; the Turbo Furys, along with the Turbo Darts, began an extensive dealership tour in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago to test consumer reaction.

Tour schedules included first displaying the cars to members of the press, giving each newsman a ride in the car and staging special tests. Following the press conferences, the cars went on display. By the time the tests were finished, the cars had been shown in ninety cities in both the U.S. and Canada. At each showing the question was asked, "If this car were offered for sale to the motoring public, do you think you would buy one?" Thirty percent answered yes, they would definitely buy one, with 54% answering they would seriously think of buying a turbine-powered car. Basing on these replies, Chrysler Corporation released a statement Valentine's Day 1962 that it would build "fifty to seventy-five turbine-powered passenger cars" that would be made available to selected users by the end of 1963. Three months, later Chrvsler unveiled the Elwood Engle designed Ghia-bodied Turbine Car at the Essex House in New York City. On the same day a ride-and-drive program for the press was held at the 2-1/2mi Roosevelt Raceway Park on Long Island.

Chrysler dealers got their first hands-on look at the car at the Waldorf-Astoria May 15. With the switch to the semi-production Ghia Turbine Cars (fifty-five were built, fifty of which were used in Chrysler's Consumer Delivery Program, which ran from October 29, 1963, through January 28, 1966), Plymouth's involvement in Chryslers turbine program began winding down. Two 1964 Turbine Plymouths were built, one powered by a "fourth generation" design, the other with a "fifth generation" turbine. The last Plymouth Turbine cars, a pair of Satellite sedans built in 1973, marked Plymouth's last efforts in the corporation's Turbine program. What had begun as a serious attempt to produce an alternative to the piston engine automobile eventually fell by the wayside. 1963 Ghia turbine details (Richard Benner photos) Between 1953 and 1970 Chrysler had invested $100 million of its own funds in the turbine program, with the U.S. government investing an additional $19 million between 1972 and 1980.

The Arab oil embargo of 1973, Chrysler's declining fortunes in the late 1970s, and stringent government regulations all helped kill the project. When the program was discontinued an eighth generation turbine was on the drawing boards, designed to be used with the K-car platform. When the axe fell, Chrysler Corporation had built a total of eighty turbine-powered motor vehicles: fourteen Plymouths, seven Dodges, two Dodge trucks, two dream cars, and fifty-five Ghia-bodied coupes. None of the early turbine cars still exist. Considered merely prototypes and test mules, the cars were eventually scrapped. Fate was slightly kinder to nine of the fifty-five Ghia Turbines. Because the bodies of these cars had been built in Italy, they were brought into the country under a Customs bond. Eventually Chrysler had the choice of paying duty on the vehicles or scrapping them, and it chose the latter. The turbine engines were removed and the cars trucked to the "boneyard" at the Chelsea test facility where Chrysler prototypes are routinely cut apart.

Under the watchful eye of Elmer Kiel, Chelsea's destruction overseer, the cars were pulled off the transporters, the hood and deck lids torched off, the windows smashed, and the interiors set on fire before the bodies were loaded into a crusher. The remaining nine Ghia Turbines were dispersed to museums around the country. Chrysler Corporation retained three of the coupes, number 50, number 42, and number 47. The Harrah Collection in Reno, Nevada, got car number 31 which has since passed through the Domino Collection to Frank Kleptz, the only turbine car now in private hands [this may have changed]. Car number 11 is in the National Museum of Transportation at St. Louis, car number 25 is in Detroit at the Detroit Historical Collection on Woodward Avenue, car number 34 resides in the Henry Ford Museum at Dearborn, and car number 44 at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. The last car, number 45, resides at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Each car had to be shipped with the turbine disabled, but each was shipped with a fresh engine in a crate.

Except for the Chrysler-owned cars, all the cars remain inoperable [as of the writing of the book]. The Chrysler Historical Foundation possesses one of each of the seven generations of the turbine engine, reminders of Chrysler’s valiant effort to mass produce a gas turbine-powered automobile. The Rover Turbine Cars Turbine Cars by John Wheaton* Shortly after war was declared in 1939, Spencer Wilks was approached by the government to assist with a top-secret new development - Frank Whittle's gas turbine. He agreed, although Rover engineers knew nothing about the subject, the project being referred to as a supercharger for security reasons. Whittle's company, Power Jets Ltd, was short of production facilities so the plan was for Rover to develop the Whittle design to production state, then maybe manufacture for the RAF. (Amazingly, Rolls Royce had no interest in jets at this stage as they were too busy producing their V-12 Merlins for the Spitfires.) Early in 1940 work was progressing well with development, but serious differences arose between Whittle and the Rover engineers.

Whittle's company was supposed to do the inventing, so he was furious with Rover for 'altering' (actually improving) his design in detail and basic concept without his approval. The first Rover-built engines were to Whittle's W2 design (except with Rover-developed accessory drives) but were badly underpowered and suffered from surging and turbine failure. They then began development of the W2B version making many design changes of their own (causing more conflict). Rover then got the go-ahead from the ministry to begin their own design (code-named B26 and so secret that Whittle was not even informed). This was a totally new concept of a straight-through layout retaining some of the original compressor features but giving dramatically improved thrust and reliability. It formed the basis of the World's very first production jet engine, the Rolls Royce Welland Not a bad show for a 'conservative' motor car manufacturer! By 1942 Rover were the leading jet engine developers (including de Havilland) when Rolls Royce, the top aero engine manufacturers, decided to enter the field.

As Rover were not sure they wanted to stay in the aero engine business, they did a deal -handing Rolls all their gas turbine work (first completing all existing developments) in exchange for the 700hp RR Meteor engine project. This was a modified version of the Spitfire V-l2 RR Merlin engine intended for use in tanks. Rover developed and built the Meteor engine which powered the Centurion and later Conqueror tanks. Their later V-8 version Meteorite petrol and diesel engines were used in marine, heavy-duty and stationary applications right up to 1964. Thus the seeds were sown for what was to be Rover's most famous achievement - the World's first gas-turbine car. Shortly after the war ended, Maurice Wilks tentatively suggested to his brother Spencer that they should look at gas turbines for cars, but both fully realised the costs involved and that a partner would be essential. Spencer approached his friend Henry Spurrier of Leyland resulting in Leyland agreeing to become financially involved, however all development work would be done only by Rover.

By the end of 1945 work had begun (in great earnest and secrecy) in project department C at Solihull under Frank Bell and Spencer King both ex RR gas turbine boffins. The early problems were more financial than technical (to this day JET 1 has a 2nd hand bicycle caliper brake to stop the power turbine turning in neutral), not only were materials horribly expensive but almost unobtainable. In spite of this, the first prototype engine was running by February 1947. There were of course also technical problems - one has to remember that gas turbines run at over 40,000 rpm and up to that time no one had ever tried (or even thought of) linking this high speed power to drive road wheels. (Rover's solution of using a second power turbine was copied by all who followed later). One should also realise that everyone was learning at the time - it was a miracle if the engine ran at all; test-bed operators were unmarried volunteers! A typical sequence from a notebook - 1st test: satisfactory light-up, no oil pressure. 2nd test: no light-up. 3rd test: engine exploded.

The Jet 1 However, the first engine (T5) producing 100bhp at 55,000 compressor rpm and weighing less than a standard Rover engine was announced in May 1948. The more powerful T8 was born later that year and successfully tested at the end of 1949 - in a boat! This motor was the one finally installed in Rover's 'latest' product (a P4 75 Cyclops) - called JET 1, it made its first runs on March14 1950 and was subsequently shown to the RAC and the Press. Brief descriptions of the Gas Turbine cars and events follow. A. 1950. T(for turbine car) 2A - like T2, best forgotten. Outboard rear engine. The Rover T3 D. 1956. T3. First car specifically designed around gas turbine engine, by Spencer King with Gordon Bashford and Peter Wilks. Inboard rear engine (2S100 - 2 shaft, lOOhp) 4-wheel drive, fixed diff. Sheet steel frame, glassfibre body (David Bache).

DeDion rear suspension, back-angled front forks, 4-wheel inboard Dunlop disc brakes - Most of these innovations were to be used on the P6, seven years later! Compressor turbine 52,000rpm, light-up 15,000rpm Max bhp 110 Max mpg 13 (with heat exchanger). E.1961. T4. 2 years before production P6. Basic P6 unit body shell with modified nose. Front engine, front wheel drive. Rear suspension, swing axles with coil springs. Max bhp 140. Acceleration 0-60mph,8 seconds. Max mpg 20 (with heat exchanger) The Rover T4 F. 1963 The Rover-BRM (00) had been driven at LeMans by Graham Hill and Richie Ginther at an average of 108mph (and 7mpg) which would have made it 8th overall, but it was not officially competing, hence the 00 number. The Rover BRM G.

1964 Rover-BRM, rebodied by David Bache and Bill Towns, was damaged in transit to LeMans, and did not compete that year. H. 1965 Increased air-intakes and extra driving lamps, driven at LeMans by Graham Hill and newcomer Jackie Stewart, was 10th overall at 99mph (13.5mpg) in spite of engine damage. How did these cars behave? Graham Robson describes his first (and only) drive in T4... "Starting drill is simple but drawn out - turning the key actuates the special Lucas starter motor which winds away for several seconds. A faint, distant whine rises in pitch and intensity before light-up occurs and the engine settles down to 'idle' at 35,000rpm. This is enough to cause the car to creep along the road if the brakes are not applied, as there is about 4bhp residual at idle.

To get moving engage forward gear and depress 'loud pedal' - after a jet lag of about 3 seconds, the engine speed rises rapidly to 50,000rpm and the car whooshes off up the road leaving engine noise behind (although this is quite acceptable to passers-by). 60mph is reached in 8 secs (a la 3500S) with very civilized handling. ï¿½ T3 and T4 were the magnificent swan songs of Rover's gas-turbine cars - whatever happens in the future, Rover were the first and most successful (T4's achievements have never been matched). T3 and T4 happily survive in running condition in the British Leyland Collection, while JET 1 is honorably retired in the Kensington Science Museum. * This piece was taken from the RCCA archives. We believe the author to be as stated. BBC ON THIS DAY | 8 | 1950: Gas turbine car gets road test 1950: Gas turbine car gets road test Car manufacturers Rover have unveiled the first car powered with a gas turbine engine.

JET1, a two-seater model powered by the same kind of engine used in a jet, will have its first public test drive at the Silverstone racing circuit in Northamptonshire tomorrow. The model being tested is still only experimental. But the company hopes production models which will be ready in another three or four years. JET1 has been built with the engine positioned behind the seats. There are air intake grilles on either side of the car and exhaust outlets on the top of the tail. During tests, the car has reached top speeds of 90 miles an hour, with the engine running at 50,000 revs per minute. The Royal Automobile club recorded an acceleration speed of 0-60 (97km) in 14 seconds. Car designer Spencer King took the car out for an early spin for the benefit of the television cameras. He said: "I should like to say first of all this car is very easy indeed to drive. I have driven it quite a bit beforehand and there is no difficulty at all. "You have two pedals, one to start and one to stop with, and the car handles very nicely.

It runs dead straight however fast you're going." The car runs on petrol, paraffin or diesel oil, but consumption is still high - about five to seven miles a gallon (2km to 2.5km per litre). Chief Engineer Maurice Wilks says he hopes the car will prove a success. "It is obviously the Rover Company's intention to produce a gas turbine engined car as a marketable proposition if and when that becomes practicable," he said. "It will certainly be as good as, most probably better than, existing piston engined cars in respect of performance and weight. Probably though, it will not be quite so good in respect of fuel consumption, but to balance that the performance will be superb." 1964 Chrysler Turbine Car - Road Test - Motor Trend Classic 3. Dealer Selection Receive your free dealer pricing information by completing your contact information! It’s 1963 and the chill wind of the Cold War is cutting through the average Joe on the streets of America. It’s the era of the Space Race and the Berlin Wall, “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” nascent Beatlemania, and summer vacations at Disneyland.

Terms like nuclear winter and mutually assured destruction are no longer abstractions in the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis, but, hey, at least we seem to be winning: You have to be a high-ranking official in the Politburo just to get your hands on a 15-year-old Packard design in the USSR, but you need only be a responsible working- or middle-class citizen in this country if you want to drive a jet-powered Chrysler . Former board chairman Lynn Townsend delivered the first Chrysler Turbine Car loaner to Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Vlaha of Broadview, Illinois, on October 29, 1963. The Vlahas would drive the Firefrost bronze, Ghia-bodied coupe with black vinyl top and copper-orange leather interior for three months, and then turn it over to the second of four families chosen for an experiment that would include 50 cars delivered to 203 households over two years. Chrysler would display Turbines in shopping malls and hype a 47,000-mile world tour covering 23 cities in 21 countries.

A white Turbine coupe would costar as James Darren’s race car in the 1964 cheesecake film, “The Lively Set.” But despite all the promise, the future never really made it out of the research lab and onto Middle America’s driveways. So what went wrong? Production commenced in mid-1963, with the experiment built on a midsize Chrysler two-door chassis, with 2+2 seating. It has front coil springs, leafs in the back, and scary drum brakes all around. Chrysler’s fourth-generation turbine is under the hood, rated 130 horsepower and 425 pound-feet. Transmission is a three-speed TorqueFlite, minus the torque converter (the secondary turbine fan can stop with the engine running). Reverse is at the top of the floor shift, with idle/park next–you pull up on the lever to get it out of park–then drive, and low. Our Chrysler-owned test car, number 991230, has fresh paint and cosmetics, and its bias-ply tires have been upgraded to P205/75R14 radials.

You can see a lot of 1961 “projectile” Thunderbird influence in the Turbine’s postmodern styling. Lead designer was Elwood Engel, hired from Ford Motor Company to replace an ailing Virgil Exner as head of Chrysler design in 1961. Engel had designed the 1961 Lincoln Continental , a clean, elegant car penned at the height of chrome-and-fin-filled excess of which Exner was a pioneer. Engel’s turbine theme continues inside, with the rounded transmission tunnel splitting the buckets front and back. Afterburner taillamps taper out at the edges and are accented with round backup lights inside them, surrounding the license-plate pocket. Most controls, including headlamps and heater/outside air fan control, are on the center hump, near the gearshift. The car has an AM radio and power windows, but no air-conditioning. With no carburetor, you don’t pump the throttle as you would for other cars of the era. Reduction gears lower the output speed to 5360 rpm, but the max speed of the second-stage turbine is 45,700 rpm.

It winds up with the big vacuum-cleaner sound of a jet, idling at a McLaren Mercedes F1-worthy 15,000 rpm. Acceleration is progressive and oh-so-smooth, but it’s not terribly quick, and passing requires you to move the lever into low for a downshift. It’s what you’d expect of, say, a 318 V-8, not a Hemi or 440 Magnum. Drivers will marvel at the sound rather than the forward thrust. With 425 pound-feet at stall, torque-braking can produce a much quicker launch. But we’re in polite, Chrysler-escorted company. The car has an unusually tight turning circle, but it wallows on a cushy-soft suspension, tilting its nose at the hint of turn-in on the wide esses of Chrysler’s Auburn Hills test track. At speed, it’s quiet and comfortable.The Turbine lacks the sporting cachet of its contemporary musclecars, but its styling and that whooshy engine note places you smack-dab in the middle of the 1960s. This was the future, the step you’d take short of moving up to George Jetson’s flying car.

American automakers had been evoking jet aircraft with projectile hood ornaments, swept fenderlines, and afterburner taillamps since the Truman administration. This car earns its red-lens afterburners, especially when you shut off the engine and hear it whirr down like a jet pulling up to the gate. Chrysler could’ve sold thousands just to wannabe airline pilots. The future, the promise of the jet age right there in your garage, didn’t come to pass. A handful of lucky people were able to borrow the future, but no one could buy it. Plans to market 500 1966 Dodge Chargers with turbine engines were scrapped, as impending smog regulations would’ve made it tough for the turbine to meet nitrogen oxide emissions. Chrysler built three more generations of turbine engines, installed in production cars and not displayed to the public, through the end of the 1970s, when it concluded turbines/ turbine engines didn’t have the emissions and fuel-economy advantages to overcome the costs of materials and production. Some automakers continued research into the early 1990s, after which hydrogen fuel-cell development began to take over as the next internal combustion engine alternative.

Which raises this question: Is the future of the hydrogen fuel-cell engine any brighter? Ask the Man Who Drove One Mark Olson was 16 years old when his parents, Alden (a diesel truck mechanic) and Beulah, took possession of Turbine Car number 991232 in Duluth, Minnesota, on May 13, 1965 (he considers the cars 1963 models). He’s now a computer systems analyst and proprietor of the turbinecar.com Web site. “My dad was generous,” Olson says. “He let so many people drive it,” including his son. The loan agreement required Alden Olson be in the car whenever anybody else, including Mark, drove it, so it saw no high school dates. The Olsons enthusiastically put 12,600 miles on it (plus an estimated 2000 more, as the speedometer was broken for a week) with Alden driving it to work in Superior, Wisconsin, every day. Weekend drives included 320-mile round trips to visit Mark’s brother in Minneapolis. No.

991232 went back to the local Dodge dealer twice, first for the broken speedo, then for a brake job. The brakes could be done locally, but a service rep had to travel from Chicago for the speedo. A third time, it broke down in the middle of Nebraska and was diagnosed with a broken fuel-shutdown relay. Mark Olson says his father used the recommended No. 1 Diesel fuel “almost all the time. We spent a lot of time in truck stops.” The car averaged 14.5 mpg and could reach 18-19 mpg on highways, he says. Curious bystanders made travel difficult, though, even if the Olsons managed 4200 miles per month. “You never got to drive the car. You’d start it and stop it for people.” Ask the Man Who Fixed Them Bill Carry ran the service program for the 50 Chrysler Corporation Turbine Cars distributed to the public. More than 30,000 people applied for the chance to be among the 203 to drive the car for three months. “The only restrictions: You can’t take it out of the country, and no racing,” Carry says.

The first one had to come back immediately, when Mrs. Richard Vlaha (her first name isn’t recorded) was hit from behind on the way home from its presentation. The driver behind her was too busy looking at it to notice it had stopped. Problem is, the body was handbuilt by Ghia of Torino, Italy. “The replacement decklid was about 3/8 inch too short.” Our Take Then:“Piston engines haven’t reached the degree of development where engineers can begin looking for other powerplants. We predict that power sources available within the next 10 years will allow closed-circuit steam or mercury vapor turbines to be operated much more efficiently than current ones.”–Editor-in-chief Charles Nerpel’s monthly column in the August 1963 issue of Motor TrendNow:The Chrysler Turbine is the poster car for a time defined by the Cold War and the Space Age.

How a Turbine Works Chrysler claimed these “real” advantages in literature for the Turbine Car: reduced maintenance, longer engine-life expectancy, development potential, 80-percent parts reduction, virtual elimination of tuneups, no low-temperature starting problems, no warmup period, no antifreeze, instant interior heat in the winter, no stalling because of sudden overloading, negligible oil consumption, low engine weight, no engine vibration, and “cool and clean” exhaust gases. It ran on unleaded gas, diesel fuel, kerosene, JP-4, and other fuels.A turbine engine is simple. Intake air is compressed and preheated, then burned in an open chamber, out of which the rapidly expanding gases are directed onto two turbine wheels: one to run the compressor and accessories, and one to drive the car. Ghia “covered a lot of sins with lead,” Carry says. “The cars came out much heavier than planned.” They were about 4000 pounds, he says, with all the lead work offsetting the Turbine Car’s aluminum hood and decklid. Other early loaner Turbine Cars had serious mechanical problems. “The turbine wheels were welded to the shaft with inertia welding.

Stresses caused the wheels to break at wide-open throttle. We changed to electron-beam welding [on later cars],” Carry says. It wasn’t the end of Carry’s problems. “We changed a lot of engines. The electrical system wasn’t idiot proof. People would drive them when the engine temperature got too high.” But, mostly, they ran well. “Some people put as much as 10,000 miles on in three months.” Survivors Forty-six of the 55 Chrysler Corporation Turbine Cars were destroyed to avoid import duties on the Italian-built bodies. Legend has it that one doomed to the crusher was “crash-tested” for the helluvit at the Chelsea Proving Grounds and that the whereabouts of the wreck are unknown. The survivors are: Nos. 991230, 991242, and 991247 Walter P. Chrysler Museum Auburn Hills, Michigan No. 991211 National Museum of TransportationSt. Louis, Missouri No.

991225 Other notable gas turbines 0.1 1950 Rover JET1 This car reaches 90 mph (at 50,000-rpm engine speed) and sprints from 0-to-60 mph in a mere 14 seconds at the Silverstone circuit in England. Rover says, “The company hopes production models will be ready in another three or four years.” 0.2 1954 Plymouth Sport Coupe Chrysler develops a “regenerator” for its first driveable gas turbine, an exchanger that extracts heat from exhaust gases, transferring the energy to the intake air and relieving the turbine burner’s job of raising gas temperature. It mitigates two problems: low fuel economy and high exhaust temperatures. 0.3 1954 GM Firebird I General Motors’s first gas-turbine dream car features a jet-shaped body with a driver’s cockpit. Also for this year, GM introduces its Turbocruiser gas-turbine bus.

0.4 1959 GM Firebird III This two-passenger dream car, with a joystick for steering (which replaced the conventional steering wheel, brake pedal, and accelerator), features a two-cylinder 10-horsepower gasoline engine to run the accessories. 0.5 1956 Plymouth Turbine Special Quotidian Plymouth sedan becomes the first gas turbine to make a transcontinental journey, traveling the 3020 miles from New York City’s Chrysler Building to Los Angeles City Hall, averaging 13 mpg in four days. 0.6 1961 Chrysler Turboflite Dream car marks the debut of the Model CR2A Turbine, rated 140 horsepower at 4750 rpm/output shaft speed, with 375 pound-feet at zero rpm output shaft speed. The CR2A is tested in a 1960 Plymouth and a 1960 Dodge 21/2-ton truck. 0.7 1963 Rover/BRM Rover and the Formula 1 team combine to develop a gas-turbine coupe driven in the 24 Hours of Le Mans by Graham Hill and Richie Ginther.

It averages 107.8 mph, with a top speed of 142 mph. 0.8 1967 ST Turbine Indy Car Parnelli Jones leads the Indy 500 for 198 laps, but DNFs with two laps to go when the Andy Granatelli-built car’s transmission fails. Share this article in:

Question: Which make of car was the first to be powered by gas turbine?
Answer: ROVER